Scottish graduates perform better than the rest of the UK

The results of a survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics agency indicate that Scottish graduates are out-performing their counterparts in the rest of the UK when it comes to graduate employment.

The survey, conducted in 2014, looked at the employment of leavers from the 2010/11 academic year as well as noting their retention of employment, their level of progression within their chosen field and their salaries.

Scottish graduates were found to have the lowest rate of unemployment within the UK, with only 1.9 per cent of leavers found out of work three years after their degree. In Northern Ireland 2.5 per cent of graduates had failed to find work, with that figure rising to 2.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent in England and Wales respectively.

It was good news for the UK as a whole with unemployment amongst graduates shrinking from 3.4 per cent in 2008/09 to 2.7 per cent.

According to the survey graduates of Scottish universities are also most likely to stay in the region they graduated from, with 77.8 per cent of Scottish students choosing to remain in Scotland after they had completed their degrees.

Universities Scotland, the body that represents the country’s higher education institutions, acknowledged the findings as an indication of the large contribution that graduates are making to the country’s economy.

In addition, Scottish graduates were found to be in receipt of both the highest average salaries and to have experienced the largest growth in salaries in the UK.